The Trai recently released the telecom subscription data for the month of January 2021. In the report, the sector regulator said struggling telco Vodafone Idea (Vi) managed to add 1.7 million new subscribers. As it turns out, Vi has reportedly confirmed to Financial Express that the numbers sent out to Trai for January are incorrect. The report says the telco plotted the data incorrectly for the UP West telecom circles. Vi sent out the correct numbers to Trai and an updated subscription data is expected to come out in the coming days. Everyone expected that Vi is slowly getting back on track after facing a tough time of close to three years. That said, the FE report did not reveal the official subscriber data sent out by Vi to Trai.
Trai to Release Updated Subscription Data Report Soon
Vodafone Idea earlier reported to Trai that it added 3.7 million subscribers in UP West telecom circle alone. Out of the 22 telecom circles, Vodafone Idea lost subscribers in 18 circles, while gaining in four of them, with UP West leading the pack. The massive number of subscriber additions in UP West alone surprised a lot of analysts. Keeping the surprises in check, Vi has now reported that the numbers sent out to Trai are incorrect, and it has now corrected them. Trai is expected to release the updated subscription data in the coming days.
At the end of December 2020, Vi had a subscriber base of 20.33 million in the UP West circle. And at the end of January 2021, the number increased to 24.08 million.
Right after Trai releasing this report, everyone expected that Vi is coming back into the game steadily. But we will now have to wait for the updated report from Trai. Going by the current report, Vi has grabbed new subscribers after 15 months. The telco last added new customers in October 2019.
Vi's overall subscriber base stood at 284.2 million at the end of December 2020, with an ARPU of Rs 121, the lowest amongst the private telcos. The same Trai report said Airtel added the most number of subscribers at 5.8 million, followed by Reliance Jio with 1.9 million new users.
